Seems like every time down the court a foul was called on a Blazer. Hawks went to the free throw line 48 times - Blazers only 25. Too big a gap to sound fair. Referees missed a lot of Hawks fouls. GO BLAZERS!!
Disagree. It has a lot to do with the style of play. Portland plays SOFT, hence they don't get the calls. Has nothing to do with the refs not being fair.
Tough to get foul calls when half of your shots are from 24'. (...or in Meyers Leonard's case, 90% of your shots)
Dwight Howard took 16 of their FTs. Most of those were deliberate, hack-a-Howard fouls, and even those that weren't were at least semi-intentional. When a player like Dwight gets the ball under the basket, you either foul him, or let him dunk on you. Given his struggles at the FT line, fouling him is the odds on smart move. BTW, Millsap also went to the line 12 times. That means their starting front court shot 28 of those 48 FTs. Our starting front court was a combined 1-4 from the FT line. Their bigs play strong and play in the paint, Ours don't. Kind of hard to blame that on the refs. Do the math. 48-28 = 20 FTs for everyone not named Howard or Millsap. 25 - 4 = 21 FTs for everyone not named Leonard or Vonleh. Seems pretty equitable to me. BNM
I have been hearing this about different teams and games my whole life. And even though there is no doubt it is true, it is still a total fucking bullshit excuse that justifies a poor officiated game. A foul is a foul and they should be calling it the same way for every team and every player. Period! Easier said than done, but that should be the goal. But I don't care if we are considered soft or not, better defensive players should not get more latitude when defending players just because that is their style or reputation. I understand that is the reality, but it does not make it fair, or by the rules.
The logic seems sound, but doesn't represent reality. We had a game a while back were we got 1 1/2 times our oppoenent's points in the paint, and the other team went to the line significantly more.
I think you're missing the point. They don't get the calls because they don't draw the contact. A spot up 3-point specialist isn't going do draw as many fouls as a player who attacks the paint. Less chance for contact = fewer fouls. That's not bad officiating. I honestly didn't see any bias from the officials last night. Sure there are questionable calls every game, but they tend to even out. ATL shot more FTs largely by design. We were hacking Dwight on purpose. Millsap draws more fouls than Vonleh or Leonard because he attempts more shots in the paint than the two of them combined. Guys like Leonard and Crabbe that rarely venture inside the 3-point line just aren't going to draw as many fouls as Millsap and Howard (who shot 28 of ATLs 48 FTs). BNM
For anyone who thinks the officials are biased against us, we are tied for 15th in the league in FTA/G with Golden State. We average 23.5 FTA/G. The league average is 23.3 FTA/G. On a team without a legitimate low post scoring threat, I think we're being treated fairly by the refs. I really believe this is a style of play issue, not some attempt by the league to screw us. Back in the early 1990s, we were in the top 3 in FTA/G five years in a row. Why, because those were not jump shooting teams. They were teams that pushed the pace and attacked the basket. In the late 199os, we slipped a little, but were still in the top 10 every year in FTA/G. We didn't have guys that attacked the basket with fervor like Clyde and Kersey, but we still had guys that banged down low like Brian Grant. Every time this team has been good, every time we've been in the top 10 in FTA/G, we've had a power forward that was an enforcer type that played physical - Luke, then Buck, the BGrant. Who is that physical presence now? No one. We haven't been in the top 10 in FTA/G since 2000, and it has nothing to do with officiating bias. When was the last time we had a legitimate low post scoring threat? Even when our PF was our leading scorer, he was loathe to do the dirty work and bang down low. He preferred to settle for midrange fall away jump shots. When was the last time we weren't a team of jump shooters? Don't blame the refs. Blame our personnel and our style of play. BNM
Two different topics IMO. One is the style of play, the other is allowing grabbing/holding/pushing off by one team and not the other because certain players/teams do it all the time. This has nothing to do with jump shooting teams vs attacking offenses. My issue is that certain teams and players like Memphis , Spurs, and now Atlanta get away with more because of defensive reputation. As physical as that game was last night, a huge play in the 4th, was when were up about 5 points and Crabbe gets called for the offensive foul on his way to the basket. Are you kidding me? Why would they even think about calling that? the basket was wiped out and more importantly the momentum completely changed. Schroeder pushes off all game like that to gain an advantage. Did he ever get called for it once.
Great post. Hopefully, Nurkic is the solution to some of that front line foul disparity going forward.
Since when does Atlanta have a league-wide rep as a great and physical defense? They do play good defense, but it's not like they're identified as a defensive juggernaut or a hugely physical team, IMO. Sure, there's probably the effect that Pat Riley noted when he was head coach of the Knicks: "If you foul every time, they can't call 'em all." In other words, you can change the baseline for officiating to be more physical by being physical all the time. You'll still ring up a ton of fouls, though, and Riles' Knicks did. I definitely did not perceive that being the case for Atlanta, though.
